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Sen. Jose Rodriguez: Tornillo shelter to house immigrant children indefinitely

Aileen B. Flores, El Paso Times
Published 6:04 p.m. MT July 6, 2018

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a video of a June 21, 2018, tour of the tent city for detained immigrant children in Tornillo, Texas.
Courtesy HHS

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released photos of the facility in Tornillo, Texas, being used to house immigrant children.(Photo11: Courtesy U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

Rodriguez said the commander who heads BCFS, the nonprofit operating the Tornillo facility, told Rodriguez that he was asked to continue operating the shelter indefinitely despite being told previously that the shelter would cease operations when its 30-day contract ended July 13.

The commander told reporters during a media tour on June 25 that the extension of the contract was not going to be needed, and that the only reason the facility opened was because of the separation of families at the border.

He then called the separation of children from their parents an "incredibly dumb, stupid, decision."

Rodriguez said that of the more than 300 children currently housed at the Tornillo shelter, only 16 were separated from their parents while trying to cross the border. The rest arrived at the borders unaccompanied.

The boys and girls held at the tents, who range from 13 to 17 years old, are waiting to be reunified with their parents or other relatives who live in the United States.

The tent shelter opened in mid-June in response to an element of the new “zero tolerance” immigration policy by the Trump administration. That policy resulted in more than 2,000 immigrant children being separated from their parents.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order June 20 to halt the family separations at the border. Fort Bliss has been tapped to house immigrant families and was to begin construction on facilities similar to those in Tornillo on Thursday.